This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
The U.S. Justice Department ordered the immediate placement of medical marijuana into a lower, less restrictive tier of regulated drugs — a historic change in federal marijuana policy which is expected to open up access for research, banking services for business and lessen tax burdens.
And there’s hope that those changes will apply to recreational businesses soon.
“It's the largest federal move that's happened since I've been in this industry, which is coming up on 17 years now,” said Tim Cullen, founder of the cannabis store Colorado Harvest Company.
The order moves FDA-approved medical and state-regulated medical products from Schedule I, which includes heroin, to Schedule III, which includes anabolic steroids and Tylenol with Codeine.
“The Department of Justice is delivering on President Trump’s promise to expand Americans’ access to medical treatment options,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a statement. “This rescheduling action allows for research on the safety and efficacy of this substance, ultimately providing patients with better care and doctors with more reliable information.”
The order also expedites a broader rescheduling of marijuana to Schedule III, with the first administrative hearing scheduled for June 29.
“You see here Trump, in a very Trumpy way, saying it's not happening fast enough, make it happen faster, and if that continues and that pressure continues to exist, and to increase, this really might be the first step that leads to overall change in marijuana policy,” said Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver and an expert in cannabis policy.
“Donald Trump isn't patient, and he told (podcaster) Joe Rogan that he thought the DEA was slow-walking his demand that marijuana be rescheduled, and this was his way of speeding things up,” said Kamin.
The DOJ says the order is a long-term solution for researchers, too, who have struggled to study modern marijuana products in university labs. “For medical. Yes. But the recreational question is sort of the big one,” added Kamin.
Researchers in Colorado questioned whether the order will dramatically benefit their work.
“My understanding is rescheduling to Schedule III will allow medical providers to do more clinicians to prescribe cannabis and do more studies,” said Tess Eidem a research scientist at CU Boulder. But it doesn’t apply to recreational commercial cannabis. “So that is still a major barrier.”
The order released Thursday only applies to medical businesses in Colorado. The market in Colorado is now dominated by recreational sales. Last year, Colorado reported recreational cannabis sales of $1.2 billion, and just $133.4 million for medical. There are currently 52,617 medical patients in the state, the lowest number in 16 years.
Cullen started Colorado Harvest as a medical dispensary, but it has been fully recreational since 2014.
“It was not because our hearts are not interested in the medical market,” said Cullen. “It was just because there was not enough of a market to make it worthwhile to hold onto the licenses. We have to pay for every individual license, and there was just not enough consumers on the medical side to make that a viable business.”
So while the order portends similar changes for recreational, and possibly within the year, it won’t have an effect on most businesses in Colorado today. If marijuana is more broadly rescheduled, then the recreational businesses could have more access to banking and relief from a ban on business tax write-offs that eat into business profits.
If rescheduling comes for recreational, customers may be able to use credit cards for purchases.
For now, those changes only apply to a small part of the market.
“It still creates this situation where the playing field is unlevel, where now part of the industry gets to enjoy some relief from some of the tax rules and perhaps opens up banking, but part of the industry still does not,” said Cullen. “But this is a step in the right direction.”
Not everyone agrees. One Chance to Grow Up, a non-profit “dedicated to protecting kids” said there’s a greater need to provide safeguards and education about the potential harms of cannabis.
“Kids became the canary in the coal mine for a dangerous experiment, leaving countless teens and young adults harmed and too many lessons learned after the damage was done,” said One Chance Executive Director Henny Lasley, in a statement. “States and federal policymakers must understand the impacts rescheduling and legalization have on the normalization among kids, who may perceive it as a wellness product.”
While legalization advocates welcomed the move, there’s concern of legal challenges to the medical rescheduling and potential recreational rescheduling.
“So a lot of advocacy work to be done,” said Christian Sederberg, an attorney who helped draft marijuana legalization in Colorado. “It's going to be a rapid and furious a couple months here for the folks that have been working on this.”
